Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.

Author's Notes: I just wanted to thank ju-crom, BlowYouAway, Guilty Ink and itachifan01 for reading and reviewing the last chapter. I intend to keep going no matter what because I really want to tell this story, but it's always easier to keep going when you get to hear what people think about it:) I hope whoever reads this chapter will enjoy themselves and come back for more!

Into the Dark

by Kristen Elizabeth

In Catholic school, vicious as Roman rule,

I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black...

"Something's changed, Itachi." Hunched over the old stone railing on the curved bridge, Shisui stared at his watery reflection in the Naka River. "I don't know what it is just yet, but something's different now."

Itachi said nothing for a long moment, unable to tell whether he should continue the conversation or change the subject. He trusted Shisui implicitly, but he was still an Uchiha, and his loyalties weren't torn like Itachi's were. Perhaps he wouldn't understand Itachi's meetings with the Hokage and the village elders. He might even report them to the clan.

Fortunately, Shisui's short attention span saved Itachi from having to make that choice. Turning around so his back was against the railing, he crossed his arms and leered. "So! Have they decided on a date for your wedding yet?"

Suddenly, he would have rather discussed politics. "Not that I've been told."

"But it's still on?" Itachi inclined his chin. "I can tell you're thrilled. What's wrong?" Shisui pressed. "She's not bad to look at and I hear she's pretty talented on the training field. If she can cook halfway decently, maybe it won't be so bad."

Standing on the other side of the narrow bridge, Itachi shook his head. "She's not the problem." He paused. "Or maybe she is. Only...it's not her fault."

"You're gonna have to give me more than that."

"I can't."

Shisui frowned. "Come on, Itachi. You know whatever you say stays with me."

After taking another moment to make what seemed like an even bigger decision, Itachi walked to his side of the bridge. "What do you know about that branch of the clan?"

"Your bride's? Not much. Their leader...Hideo..." Shisui snorted. "He's pretty much a bastard. Not that that distinguishes him from anyone else around here."

"That's her father," Itachi mused. "Their father."

Shisui continued, "Yeah, I think I heard he has two daughters."

"Akane and Emiko."

His expression, his tone...they gave him away and he knew it the second Shisui looked at him with more than just a little curiosity. "I didn't even know the other one's name," his friend confessed. "To hear Hideo talk, you'd think there was just one."

Itachi stared into the river. "Why is that?"

"I always got the impression the other one was pretty weak."

"Medical ninja aren't weak," Itachi frowned. "They have incredible chakra control. It's a gift that should never be taken lightly."

Shisui cleared his throat a bit too loudly. "I feel like I should be asking the questions since you seem to have all the answers." When Itachi looked away, he didn't see his friend smirk. "Now I'm curious to meet this Emiko..."

He regretted sneaking a peek at Itachi's face a second later. All he saw was red and black. Later, he considered himself lucky that Itachi hadn't gone any further to get the message through: Emiko was off-limits.

Shisui blew out a shaky breath when Itachi's eyes slipped back to their original color. "She must be pretty," he decided. "This is a side of you I haven't seen before."

Itachi didn't blink. "I should go. I'm still expected for dinner."

Without waiting for a reply, Itachi walked off, hands in his pockets, chin down.

He kept going until he was well out of his friend's sight, but when he reached a fork in the road, he hesitated.

Not knowing what to do was an unfamiliar feeling for a ninja on his level, but this wasn't a battle or even a training session where a moment's pause meant death. One way led home, to his mother's soft smile, his brother's endless questions and his father's ever-watchful eyes. But the other way led to another house, the home of Uchiha Hideo and his family.

He wouldn't see her, Itachi told himself. The sun was getting ready to set; she was most likely inside already. But if she wasn't, how would he explain his presence? The only business he had with that branch was through Akane. He couldn't exactly say that he'd gone out of his way to see someone other than his future bride.

Still, knowing that wasn't enough of a deterrent, and when he stepped off the curb, he took the opposite path, heading away from his home.

Emiko's branch of the clan lived in a house that was only slightly smaller than Itachi's. As he approached, a breeze followed him, almost sweeping him along the way. The leaves overhead rustled, then died down, and when the roar over his ears passed, Itachi could hear the sweet sound of a woman humming.

There was a high stone wall around the house, hardly an obstacle as it took less than a second before Itachi was perched upon it, looking down into a lush, green garden. Amidst the flowering bushes, stone pagodas, and bamboo water spouts, he located the source of the humming. Immediately, his expression relaxed.

Emiko had exchanged her formal kimono for a pair of tan pants that clung to her curves and a loose, cream-colored yukata that belted around her waist; the Uchiha crest on the back was half-hidden by the waterfall of her silky brown hair. She was on her knees in the dirt, digging up daikon radishes.

Lost in the leaves of a nearby tree, Itachi watched her work, so mesmerized by her graceful movements that it took a few minutes for him to realize that it was highly unusual for daughters of a prominent clan members to work on anything but their ninja skills. Itachi's mother cooked for her family, but it was something she enjoyed, and his father had made it clear that whenever she wanted, a servant could take over the chore.

So, why was Emiko picking vegetables in her family's garden? Did she enjoy cooking, too? When he shifted his position on the wall, in order to get a better look at her face, the movement of his sandals against the stone made Emiko's head snap up.

She was on her feet in the blink of an eye, fists raised, radishes forgotten. Itachi admired her battle stance for a moment before he jumped down from the fence, landing on a grassy patch a few yards away from her.

Emiko's eyes, narrowed before, suddenly grew wider. "Itachi-sama?"

"I didn't mean to startle you," he said, unable to come up with anything else. She had a mesh shirt on underneath her yukata and he found himself focusing on the criss-cross pattern that was exposed both below and above where the robe was belted. Blinking, he looked up at her confused expression. "I was just passing by and heard someone humming."

"And...you were so offended by the sound that you decided to make it stop?" As soon as the question was out in the open, Emiko slapped her hand against her mouth. "I'm sorry, Itachi-sama." She shook her head. "I forgot myself for a moment. Please forgive me."

The corners of his lips turned up. "No." At her pained look, he added, "There's nothing to forgive. I'm the one who intruded on your privacy."

"Why did you..." She stopped short. "It doesn't matter."

"Emiko-san..."

Emiko scooped up her radishes and took a few steps back. "I have to go, Itachi-sama." Holding the basket with both hands clasped in front of her, she bowed. "Excuse me, please."

"Wait!" he called out when she turned to go. Itachi watched her visibly wince, but he couldn't tell if it was because of the order itself or the tone of his voice. She slowly, hesitantly turned around, like someone who was very used to doing what she was told, no matter what. "You have a question; you should ask it."

"I can't, Itachi-sama. I shouldn't have..." Again, Emiko silenced herself, but when she looked up at him, her eyes were liquid amber. "Please let me go inside."

He frowned. "Have I done something to upset you, Emiko-san?"

"No! I just...I'm not supposed to do this."

"This?" Itachi looked around. "Gardening?"

The barest hint of a smile lit up her beautiful face. "Not gardening." The smile died. "I'm not supposed to talk to you."

His frown turned darker. "Who told you that?"

"It doesn't look right," Emiko said, ignoring his question. Her words sounded memorized. "You are engaged to my sister. And I'm..."

"Engaged to someone else?"

Emiko's cheeks flushed pink. "No. I'm not engaged to anyone yet."

"I'm glad." Itachi wished he could take it back until he saw her cheeks turn even rosier. "I just meant...you should make the choice for yourself." He paused. "I didn't. Your sister didn't."

She looked down into her basket. "That's not entirely true, Itachi-sama."

He swallowed heavily. "What do you mean?"

Emiko moved her head from side to side. "This is why I was told not to talk to you." She backed up again. "Please...please forget I said anything."

"I don't think I can. I..."

"Emiko!" Her beautiful name, shouted with such loathing, cut him off. "Lazy girl," his ninja ears heard her mother grumble from the direction of the house. "Where are you hiding?!"

"Please," Emiko pleaded with him as quietly as possible. "If she finds you here..."

Itachi hesitated, but only for a second. He could sense Emiko's mother drawing closer. Before the woman could break through the garden's heavy foliage, Itachi bent his knees and leaped backwards, landing in his original spot on the wall.

Only seconds later, Emiko's mother, Isako, found her. Concealing himself in the leaves, Itachi watched her approach her daughter with her hands on her wide hips.

"Did you hear me call you or have you gone deaf?"

Emiko lowered her chin in a gesture of apology and respect. "The wind is loud tonight. I'm sorry, Okaa-san." Lifting her head, she turned her eyes up towards the garden wall.

Itachi wanted to smile at her, but Isako frowned and grabbed her daughter's chin; he immediately frowned instead. "Can't you even focus on what's right in front of you? It's no wonder you can't manage to access your Sharingan." She released Emiko with enough force to make the girl stumble back. "Are you done out here? Dinner needs to be ready when your sister and father return."

Emiko nodded. "I was just heading inside, Okaa-san." She waited until her mother turned around and started back into the house before Emiko looked back up at Itachi.

They locked stares for a long moment. A breeze swept over the garden, making the long locks of Emiko's hair dance around her slender shoulders. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but with a small smile, Emiko followed her mother back into the house, leaving Itachi with even more questions than before.

That tiny smile, so freely given by a girl who seemed to have little in her life worth smiling about, haunted Itachi for the next few days. His concentration never slipped, but even while out on patrol he caught himself staring into space far more than usual.

It was particularly bad, he discovered, when he was alone. Sitting in the Archive Library, Itachi was supposed to be preparing for a mission to the Suna border, but his mind kept wandering back to that day in the garden.

What had Emiko been trying to tell him about his engagement? He'd assumed from the beginning that Akane had also been forced into the betrothal...but could he have been naive to assume she'd had no part in the arrangement? He wasn't given to vanity, yet he wasn't unaware that some women found him attractive. Had Akane chosen him?

For some reason, the idea that she had gotten to choose bothered Itachi. Why should she get to decide her future while he had his assigned to him like a life-long mission? His fist closed around his pencil, splitting the wood with a crack that echoed around the empty room.

"Is this a bad time?"

Startled by the sudden voice and the heavily injured man stepping out of the shadows to whom it belonged to, Itachi opened his hand, letting the mangled pencil fall into the spine of the open book in front of him. It wasn't just anyone who could sneak up on him, and his guard was instantly up.

"Uchiha Itachi." Half of the man's face and his entire forehead were covered with white bandages. His arm was also wrapped up and suspended in a sling. Although he smiled at Itachi, as if to reassure him, the expression was anything but warm. "I mean you no harm."

Standing up, Itachi reached into his back pocket for a kunai. "And I should take you at your word?"

"You'd be a fool if you did, and you are no fool." The man inclined his head, but even the humble gesture seemed fake. "My name is Shimura Danzo. It is a pleasure to meet the youngest captain in ANBU history."

"What do you want?"

"You are an Uchiha," Danzo noted. "Always seeking the worst intentions in a gesture of friendship."

"Friendship?" Itachi stared at the man's hooded eyes. "That's what you want?"

Danzo smiled again, still without any mirth. "I have a feeling, Itachi-san, that you and I could be great friends. Even allies. We have much in common."

At this, Itachi barely blinked. "How do you suppose that?" he asked dryly.

"I believe us both to be men who love this village and want to protect it." Danzo paused. "Whatever the cost."

"And I believe that to be true of every shinobi."

Danzo nodded rotely. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. There are always those who lay their loyalties with their kin first. Surely you know that."

Itachi's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

"I'll let you return to your work, Itachi-san." Danzo lifted his good hand in parting. "We should talk again soon."

He was gone as quickly and as quietly as he'd appeared. Itachi didn't even realize he'd been holding his breath until his lungs screamed for oxygen. But when he let it go, he didn't feel any less unsettled.

TBC